DREADBALL

DREADBALL

October 9, 2012

First game played.


Played our first game this weekend, using the partial PFD rules.  Very Fun.  Took us about 3 hours to get the game in, but we were double checking rules and figuring it out as we went along.  Watching Football and Nascar while playing probably slowed us down a little bit to.  (Wheels side down Tony...Wheels side down)

To keep things simple we played Corporation team vs. Corporation team.  We screwed up a couple of things...but wow we had a heck of a finish.

Things Learned

Strikers are pretty good at doing their job.  Being able to catch an Inaccurate pass lead to two or three completions anyway.  Orx / Goblin team will have a hard time scoring lacking Strikers.  I'm thinking the Goblin claws you see on the minis are to pin the opponents foot to the floor so they can't run away as the Orx Guard runs up and squashes them.  Action 1, move Goblin Jacks up to threaten, Action 2 move second goblin jack up to threaten same target, Action 3, Running Slam target with the Orx Guard...sending them to the morgue.

Score can turn quickly.  Score on turn 11 was 6 points up for the home team.  Turn 12 the away team scored a 4 pointer.  Turn 13 saw the ball bounce off a home strikers hands as it came on the field making it turn 14.  Where the away team was set up to repeat the 4 point play..making the score 2 up for the visiting team.

Evade is worded funny, on purpose.  Evade is a 3 die progressive test (1,2,3)...with a -1 die for every opponent threatening the hex you left (max of 2).  But you only have to Evade when you have someone threatening the hex, so you are automatically one die down.  Thinking it over the wording makes sense, cause the rule would be more cumbersome saying ignore the first guy...and only subtract one more if there is a second guy.  Just different than the other tests that say ignore the guy you are slamming or the guy slamming in the case of a Dodge.

For Humans on Humans...we either had lucky dice, or didn't gang up enough.  I did not have a guy sent off the pitch due to injury.  Had 5 or 6 knocked down, but never more than 3 potential armor breaches, and made all my saves.  I only sent off maybe 4 or 5 guys, Two got into the 3 bin, but only had one chance for a death with 5 armor breaches.   So at least from my first game, I can see your bench being flexible, get the lead, play defense and bring some guards out, fall behind, bring out your strikers.

Question

Front arc.  This will be explained by the "Diagram on page 11"  You have to be in the front arc to "See".  Can't throw if you can't "see" your target,  Can't catch if you can't "see" the thrower (No over the shoulder catches at 200mph).  So, is the front arc the front 180degrees, or the front three hexes extended out like the front firing arc in Battletech?  Full rules will answer this one.  We stumbled on this on turn 13.  The Striker was standing in the launching hex and facing directly toward the scoring hexes (North/South)...when the ball came in from the side (East / West).  We played it as if the Striker would have a chance to catch it as an inaccurate pass, using the front 180.  But the ruling on this will open up facing to 4 facings for being able to catch a launched ball or limit it to 2 when coming down the launch line.



 


4 comments:

  1. The front/rear arcs are 180 degrees with the hexes that are intersected by this line belonging to the front arc (cos I'm generous like that).

    Hope that makes sense.

    Jake

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  2. Got it, makes sense. 180 degrees and the half hexes, very nice!

    Thanks Jake!

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  3. That'll change things a bit! What about slamming a guy with the ball, i.e., when does the ball come out, when is the push back/follow-up move resolved, and when do you attempt to recover the ball?

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  4. Timing question...meaning what happens first after the slam.

    Option #1) Pushback the guy with the ball, Slammer Follow-up or stays, Scatter the ball from the hex of the slam.

    Option #2) Pushback the guy with the ball, Slammer Follow-up or stays, Scatter the ball from the hex where the guy with the ball is now.

    Option #3) Scatter the ball from the hex of the slam, Pushback the guy with the ball, Slammer Follow-up or stays.

    My gut says Option #1...but I can understand all three. Pretty sure this will be answered on Page #11 when we get the full rulebook.

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